Working remotely hasn’t stopped Jessica from immersing herself in Blink’s vibrant culture. As a solution consultant for our US enterprise accounts, she’s been making waves since joining over two years ago. Whether visiting our Boston or London offices — or collaborating from her home in Pennsylvania — Jessica loves Blink’s agile, innovative, and positive environment.
Which Blink office do you work out of?
I'm one of the few fully remote employees, but I’ve still managed to visit both offices. I go to Boston more often — probably three or four times so far — and I’ve been to London twice. I’m based in Pennsylvania, roughly in the middle between Philadelphia and New York City.
I lived in New York City for ten years, but now I have three young kids, so we needed more space. Right now, for example, it's snowing outside and there are deer in my front yard — quite a change from the city!
What's your position at Blink?
I'm a solution consultant for enterprise accounts in the US.
How long have you been at Blink?
Just over 2 years now.
What initially attracted you to join Blink?
What drew me to Blink was partly the people I knew here — people I really respected. I thought if they were at this place called Blink, then I should be here, too. On top of that, Blink’s overall mission resonated with me. I’ve been selling software for a long time, usually to IT departments, and I never really saw the broader impact beyond making some people more productive.
But hearing how Blink improves the lives of frontline workers, who often receive little support — especially after everything that happened with COVID — made me realize how crucial they are. Unfortunately, many companies aren’t investing much in improving their experience, and that’s what we’re aiming to change: enhancing their work lives.
What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?
I have to say, there’s a major deal I worked on (which we haven’t announced yet) that was incredibly exciting from start to finish. I felt like we were entering the next phase of Blink. Just the fact that this huge company even considered us — and ultimately chose us — was amazing.
I loved seeing the teamwork and effort everyone poured in. At some point, every single team played a role — marketing, product, implementation, sales, pre-sales, legal, and more. So many people came together, and it was really fun to witness. It took about six months, with hundreds of meetings and around 20 demos — truly unbelievable.
How would you describe the company culture at Blink in 3 words?
I would say it's fast-paced, super-positive — which you don't see everywhere — and agile.
I chose “super-positive” because everyone is always open and happy. You never join a meeting — whether it’s an internal call or a customer call — without seeing smiles on people’s faces. Even though everyone’s busy, they’re still great to talk to and easy to connect with.
People here are also eager to help, and I think our customers pick up on that. They know we’re not just going to deliver reliable work — we’re going to brighten their workday, too. That positivity really carries over into our relationships with them.
What's one thing you're excited about for the future of Blink?
I'm excited to see how quickly we're growing in the US and how we'll continue to expand. I’m also really thrilled about what we've already accomplished and what we’re planning to do in retail and hospitality.
When I first joined Blink, we only had a handful of customers in that sector — some of them quite small. Now, seeing what we've achieved, what we're currently doing, and what we have planned for the future is incredibly exciting, especially in that space.
We've done amazing work in transit and healthcare so far, but retail and hospitality brands are more widely recognizable. I feel like this will bring greater awareness to all the good Blink is doing, and more people will hear about it simply because they can relate more to these public-facing companies.
Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launch at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
Our internal 12 days of Blinkmas gifts campaign was amazing — I’ve never seen another company do anything like it! The gifts were great, and I loved how excited everyone was to participate. I looked forward to it every morning, eager to see who won the previous day’s gift and what the newest gift was. It really made the lead-up to the holidays special.
I actually ended up winning a really cool prize: a donation to a charity of my choice. I chose a local charity that helps families in Bucks County, where I live in Pennsylvania.
Why do you work for Blink?
I love the people here — my daily team, my manager, and the fact that I can easily reach out to anyone in another department when I need something. I always know exactly who to contact, and they typically respond quickly, no matter the time of day. It’s a refreshing change from bigger companies, where requests can just vanish. At Blink, everything gets done efficiently.
I also work here because our product is amazing. I’m in it day in and day out, and it’s so fun to envision solutions for our customers — our product is incredibly straightforward to use. I’m impressed by how fast we roll out new features and develop enhancements, whether it’s based on our own plans or customer feedback. I’ve never been at a company that does it so quickly and so well. We work together to figure out what’s best for the next phase of Blink, always keeping our customers’ needs at the center.
Working remotely hasn’t stopped Jessica from immersing herself in Blink’s vibrant culture. As a solution consultant for our US enterprise accounts, she’s been making waves since joining over two years ago. Whether visiting our Boston or London offices — or collaborating from her home in Pennsylvania — Jessica loves Blink’s agile, innovative, and positive environment.
Which Blink office do you work out of?
I'm one of the few fully remote employees, but I’ve still managed to visit both offices. I go to Boston more often — probably three or four times so far — and I’ve been to London twice. I’m based in Pennsylvania, roughly in the middle between Philadelphia and New York City.
I lived in New York City for ten years, but now I have three young kids, so we needed more space. Right now, for example, it's snowing outside and there are deer in my front yard — quite a change from the city!
What's your position at Blink?
I'm a solution consultant for enterprise accounts in the US.
How long have you been at Blink?
Just over 2 years now.
What initially attracted you to join Blink?
What drew me to Blink was partly the people I knew here — people I really respected. I thought if they were at this place called Blink, then I should be here, too. On top of that, Blink’s overall mission resonated with me. I’ve been selling software for a long time, usually to IT departments, and I never really saw the broader impact beyond making some people more productive.
But hearing how Blink improves the lives of frontline workers, who often receive little support — especially after everything that happened with COVID — made me realize how crucial they are. Unfortunately, many companies aren’t investing much in improving their experience, and that’s what we’re aiming to change: enhancing their work lives.
What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?
I have to say, there’s a major deal I worked on (which we haven’t announced yet) that was incredibly exciting from start to finish. I felt like we were entering the next phase of Blink. Just the fact that this huge company even considered us — and ultimately chose us — was amazing.
I loved seeing the teamwork and effort everyone poured in. At some point, every single team played a role — marketing, product, implementation, sales, pre-sales, legal, and more. So many people came together, and it was really fun to witness. It took about six months, with hundreds of meetings and around 20 demos — truly unbelievable.
How would you describe the company culture at Blink in 3 words?
I would say it's fast-paced, super-positive — which you don't see everywhere — and agile.
I chose “super-positive” because everyone is always open and happy. You never join a meeting — whether it’s an internal call or a customer call — without seeing smiles on people’s faces. Even though everyone’s busy, they’re still great to talk to and easy to connect with.
People here are also eager to help, and I think our customers pick up on that. They know we’re not just going to deliver reliable work — we’re going to brighten their workday, too. That positivity really carries over into our relationships with them.
What's one thing you're excited about for the future of Blink?
I'm excited to see how quickly we're growing in the US and how we'll continue to expand. I’m also really thrilled about what we've already accomplished and what we’re planning to do in retail and hospitality.
When I first joined Blink, we only had a handful of customers in that sector — some of them quite small. Now, seeing what we've achieved, what we're currently doing, and what we have planned for the future is incredibly exciting, especially in that space.
We've done amazing work in transit and healthcare so far, but retail and hospitality brands are more widely recognizable. I feel like this will bring greater awareness to all the good Blink is doing, and more people will hear about it simply because they can relate more to these public-facing companies.
Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launch at Blink that you found particularly exciting?
Our internal 12 days of Blinkmas gifts campaign was amazing — I’ve never seen another company do anything like it! The gifts were great, and I loved how excited everyone was to participate. I looked forward to it every morning, eager to see who won the previous day’s gift and what the newest gift was. It really made the lead-up to the holidays special.
I actually ended up winning a really cool prize: a donation to a charity of my choice. I chose a local charity that helps families in Bucks County, where I live in Pennsylvania.
Why do you work for Blink?
I love the people here — my daily team, my manager, and the fact that I can easily reach out to anyone in another department when I need something. I always know exactly who to contact, and they typically respond quickly, no matter the time of day. It’s a refreshing change from bigger companies, where requests can just vanish. At Blink, everything gets done efficiently.
I also work here because our product is amazing. I’m in it day in and day out, and it’s so fun to envision solutions for our customers — our product is incredibly straightforward to use. I’m impressed by how fast we roll out new features and develop enhancements, whether it’s based on our own plans or customer feedback. I’ve never been at a company that does it so quickly and so well. We work together to figure out what’s best for the next phase of Blink, always keeping our customers’ needs at the center.
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Exploring alternatives to Beekeeper? You’re not alone.
Since Beekeeper was acquired by LumApps last year, there’s been uncertainty over the future of the platform.
The stated intention? To blend the features of Beekeeper and LumApps tools. But what this means for users during the transformation process (and beyond) is still to be seen.
That’s why some organizations are viewing this as the perfect opportunity to move away from Beekeeper and find a new employee communication app. A more intuitive and scalable platform — a solution with more customization options, better search functionality, and an improved backend experience for admins.
We’re here to help — with a shortlist of 11 Beekeeper alternatives for 2026.
From modern intranets to all-in-one employee experience (EX) platforms, these software tools can help you improve internal comms, unify dispersed teams, and upgrade digital employee experience.
Features include real-time messaging, content management, social news feeds, and analytics. You can also expect robust integrations that ensure a streamlined and productivity-boosting experience for employees.
Ready to find your Beekeeper alternative? Take a look at the best employee communication platforms for 2026, along with their pros and cons.
Best for: Companies with frontline and desk-based workers looking for unified communication, engagement, and operations.
Blink is the leading alternative to Beekeeper. It’s an employee experience platform that combines communication, engagement, and productivity tools in one easy-to-use app.
These tools are available via one unified dashboard, which — crucially — contains exactly the same features and functionality across both desktop and mobile devices.
As a joined-up solution, Blink drives engagement and transparency while reducing noise and tool overwhelm. Its intuitive UX, rapid deployment, deep integrations, and enterprise-grade security make it ideal for large-scale organizations across industries.
And you don’t need to take our word for it. Blink customers — including McDonald’s, JD Group, Children’s of Alabama, and Go North West — report high app adoption rates and measurable improvements in employee engagement, retention, and operational efficiency.
Pros:
All-in-one platform for two-way communication, resources, and operations
A social-style news feed, co-worker communities, surveys, and recognition tools
Intuitive mobile-first design with high employee adoption
Integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Workday, ADP, and more
Includes analytics, AI automation, and broadcast tools
Trusted by global brands including McDonald’s, JD Group, and Domino’s
Cons:
Enterprise plan required for advanced customizations
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#2. Staffbase
Best for: Large or global enterprises with formal comms teams
Staffbase is a popular internal communication platform that caters primarily to enterprise businesses — those with complex communication needs across multiple regions. It provides branded employee apps, newsletters, and intranet tools and places a strong emphasis on content distribution and corporate messaging.
While its visual editor and content scheduling features are a plus, some users find the platform content-heavy. Its pricing model is geared towards larger organizations, and the platform may take a while to configure and fully roll out.
Pros: Strong branded experiences
Cons: More focused on top-down messaging than interactivity
#3. Workvivo
Best for: Large, multilingual organizations
Workvivo blends communication features with a social media-style interface. It allows employees to post updates, engage with leadership, and access key resources in one space. Workvivo excels at driving culture and engagement, especially in hybrid or dispersed workplaces.
The platform is backed by Zoom and integrates with major HR and collaboration tools. But there are a few downsides to bear in mind. Workvivo can be hard to customize when it comes to operational use cases like task management or process automation.
Pros: Highly engaging UI, good for culture-building
Cons: Limited operational features compared to all-in-one platforms
#4. Simpplr
Best for: Companies looking for a modern intranet and a centralized knowledge hub
Simpplr positions itself as a modern intranet with a focus on employee communications and engagement. It provides a clean UI, AI-powered content recommendations, and analytics to help internal comms teams measure impact.
It’s especially effective in large enterprises with a high proportion of knowledge workers. Smaller organizations may find that some features are unnecessary and that prices are higher than budgets allow.
Pros: Streamlined UI and good customer support
Cons: Limited customization options
#5. Firstup
Best for: Global enterprises looking for advanced audience targeting and automated message delivery
Firstup is a digital employee experience platform designed to deliver personalized content at scale. It focuses on intelligent content delivery, helping large enterprises reach the right people with the right message at the right time.
With AI-powered targeting, automated employee journeys, and email tools, Firstup works well for complex internal comms strategies. However, the platform is heavily focused on broadcast and campaign-style messaging, with limited collaboration features.
Best for: Large and complex organizations looking for an AI-native intranet
Unily is a platform that combines intranet functionality with employee experience tools. It supports rich content creation, content translation, and broadcast email across a user-friendly interface.
Unily is often praised for its design flexibility and advanced features, but it takes time and developer expertise to set up. This Beekeeper alternative is best suited to companies with dedicated IT and comms teams.
Pros: Powerful and customizable
Cons: A steep learning curve; a time-consuming setup process
#7. Microsoft Viva
Best for: Microsoft-centric organizations looking to improve employee experience
Microsoft Viva is a suite of employee experience tools within Microsoft 365. It includes modules for insights, learning, and communications, and it’s a strong choice for knowledge-worker companies already using the Microsoft ecosystem.
As you’d expect, Microsoft Viva integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, including Outlook and SharePoint. But it can be overly complex — and overly corporate for those wanting to develop a dynamic company culture.
Pros: Deep integration with Microsoft 365
Cons: Can feel fragmented; requires additional configuration
#8. Haiilo
Best for: Culture building, employee advocacy, and brand amplification
Haiilo is another Beekeeper alternative that provides employee communication and intranet capabilities. It features multiple communication channels, plus tools to amplify employer branding and build a more connected culture.
Despite the platform’s strengths, some users state that it’s overly complex, particularly for smaller businesses and less tech-savvy teams.
Pros: Great for advocacy and culture building
Cons: A complex tool with a steep learning curve; expensive for smaller companies
#9. Happeo
Best for: Google-centric organizations
Happeo is a Google-based, AI-powered intranet that acts as a centralized hub for all internal comms. It puts company news, documents, and collaboration tools in one easy-access location.
Key features include pages, channels, a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, and an intuitive user interface. But this platform lacks several useful communication tools — like direct messages, audio and video messages, and @mentions.
Pros: Easy and intuitive interface; easy integration with Google Workspace
Cons: Limited integrations beyond the Google suite; limited search functionality
#10. MangoApps
Best for: Mid-sized businesses seeking to connect dispersed teams
MangoApps provides a unified platform for communication, collaboration, and HR workflows. Key features include instant messaging, file sharing, task tracking, and employee recognition.
Users praise the platform’s ease of use but complain that the user interface — particularly on the platform’s mobile app — feels outdated compared to more modern tech tools.
Pros: Comprehensive comms features in one place
Cons: Less intuitive UI compared to newer competitors; integrations are limited
#11. Speakap
Best for: Frontline-only teams
Speakap is a communication app built for non-desk workers. It focuses on reaching employees who don’t have a corporate email or regular access to company systems. The app supports secure messaging, announcements, and integrations with payroll or scheduling tools.
Speakap is a good fit for retail or hospitality environments but offers fewer features for knowledge-based collaboration or enterprise-scale analytics.
Pros: Tailored for frontline teams
Cons: Limited scalability for enterprise-level requirements; limited team messaging functionality
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Which Beekeeper alternative is right for your organization?
The right Beekeeper alternative will depend on your organization's size, structure, and goals. But if you're looking for a platform that goes beyond messaging to deliver a truly unified employee experience, Blink stands out as a top choice.
Blink meets the needs of both frontline and desk-based teams, by bringing communication, collaboration, and productivity tools into a centralized, mobile-first hub.
With social-media-style comms tools, a consumer-grade smartphone app, and proven impact on employee engagement, it has everything you need to improve internal comms and employee experience.
Other tools on this list each offer value in specific areas — from top-down communication to culture-building to knowledge management — but Blink leads the way as a complete, scalable solution for internal comms and employee experience in 2026.
Why teams choose Blink over Beekeeper
Beekeeper's 2025 acquisition by LumApps has left many customers asking what's next for their roadmap and support. Blink offers a stable, purpose-built alternative — mobile-first, no corporate email required, and already trusted by McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A. See our full comparison, including what the acquisition means for Beekeeper customers.
Staffbase has become a popular internal communications platform, particularly for large organizations looking to modernize their intranet. It offers personalization, branded employee apps, and strong publishing tools. But many companies — especially those with distributed or deskless workforces — are starting to feel the platform’s limitations.
If your goal is to engage every employee, not just those behind a desk, you may need more than what Staffbase can offer. Common reasons teams start exploring Staffbase alternatives include:
Low adoption among frontline workers or non-desk employees
Limited functionality beyond comms and content publishing
Slow rollout times and high implementation costs
Dependence on corporate emails or M365 environments
Lack of integrated workflows, like scheduling, surveys, or task management
In short, if you're looking for more than just a modern intranet — if you need a platform that drives action, not just communication — it’s worth exploring alternatives built for today’s workforces.
What to look for in a Staffbase alternative
Not every internal comms platform is built the same. When searching for a Staffbase alternative, it’s important to evaluate tools that prioritize ease of use, adoption, and flexibility — not just content publishing.
Here are the key features and traits to look for:
#1. Mobile-first design
Choose a platform designed for mobile from the ground up — not just one that adapts desktop intranets into an app. This ensures frontline, field, and shift-based workers are truly included.
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#2. No email required
Many of today’s employees don’t have a company email. Platforms like Blink eliminate this barrier, allowing you to onboard and engage your entire workforce seamlessly.
#3. Unified employee experience
Look for more than just comms. The best platforms integrate communication with operational tools like schedules, task lists, surveys, HR links, and document access — all in one place.
#4. High adoption & engagement rates
Adoption is everything. A Staffbase alternative should show real-world data that proves high usage — not just licenses sold.
#5. Quick implementation
Complex rollouts kill momentum. Favor platforms that offer plug-and-play setups, pre-built templates, and fast deployment (especially for time-sensitive initiatives).
#6. Integrations with key systems
Ensure the platform integrates easily with your HRIS, payroll, scheduling tools, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and other core systems to avoid silos and duplicated work.
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#7. Analytics, insights & feedback loops
It’s not enough to send messages — you need to know who saw them, how they responded, and what’s working. Built-in analytics and pulse survey tools help you improve continuously.
Best for: Companies prioritizing adoption and utility.
Blink is the most comprehensive Staffbase alternative, designed to connect every employee — whether they work behind a desk, behind a counter, or out in the field. Unlike Staffbase, which often centers around publishing and personalization for office workers, Blink unifies communication, engagement, and productivity into one mobile-first app.
For organizations seeking a comprehensive and intuitive employee platform, Blink delivers. It offers rich features like content sharing, forms, chat, and analytics, all within an easy-to-use mobile and desktop experience that scales across departments.
Why organizations switch from Staffbase to Blink:
No company email required — reach 100% of your people
Combines communication and action: from news to tasks and HR tools
Market-leading usage and adoption rates
Quick rollout and self-serve administration
Loved by global brands like McDonald’s, Shake Shack, Elara Caring, and Stagecoach
Pricing: Custom pricing Gartner Rating: 4.8/5
Blink goes beyond engagement — it delivers true connection, across every role and region.
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#2. LumApps – Best for Google Workspace & Microsoft 365 integration
LumApps offers a personalized digital workplace experience and integrates well with Google and Microsoft ecosystems. It's strong in content delivery and social sharing, but its frontline functionality is limited.
Pros: Deep Google/Microsoft integrations, personalization Cons: Less effective for non-desk workers Pricing: Custom pricing Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
#3. Connecteam – Best for operational frontline use cases
Connecteam is a mobile-first app that includes scheduling, time tracking, and forms — making it ideal for operations-heavy teams. However, it lacks richer communication or storytelling tools found in Blink or Staffbase.
Pros: Operations tools like checklists and timesheets Cons: Basic internal comms capabilities Pricing: Starts at $29/month for 30 users Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
#4. Workvivo – Best for culture sharing
Workvivo focuses on building community and culture through its social intranet experience. With features like activity feeds and shout-outs, it helps employees stay connected and recognized.
Pros: Social feed, culture-first messaging Cons: Limited in tasks, shift planning, or document handling Pricing: Starts at $20k/year Gartner Rating: 4.7/5
#5. Interact – Best for traditional intranet buyers
Interact enables top-down and bottom-up communication with its mix of content publishing, document management, and collaboration tools. It is designed to adapt to a wide range of industries and team structures.
Pros: Policy management, advanced intranet architecture Cons: Less dynamic for mobile teams Pricing: Contact for quote Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
#6. Simpplr – Best for modern intranets
Simpplr offers an elegant, personalized intranet experience. It’s visually engaging and great for corporate comms, but may fall short on engaging field teams.
#7. Haiilo – Best for content planning & analytics
Haiilo excels in structured comms workflows — ideal for campaign-based content teams. It performs well in content scheduling and measurement, but lacks deeper interaction features.
Pros: Editorial planning, analytics, targeting Cons: Feels like a CMS, not a people-first app Pricing: Custom Gartner Rating: 4.1/5
#8. Unily – Best for enterprise customization
Unily is a feature-rich platform best suited for global organizations needing tailored experiences. It comes with powerful multilingual support and personalization but requires more setup and resources.
Pros: Deep customization, localization Cons: Slower implementation, high complexity Pricing: Custom Gartner Rating: 4.3/5
#9. Beekeeper – Best for shift-based comms
Beekeeper focuses on messaging, forms, and workflows for shift-based teams. While great for ops, it may lack strategic communication depth.
MangoApps offers everything from messaging to LMS to file storage. It’s ideal for companies looking to replace several internal tools at once — but may require significant configuration.
Pros: Versatile, broad feature set Cons: Can feel cluttered or complex Pricing: Custom Gartner Rating: 4.4/5
Final thoughts: Move beyond the intranet
The internal communications landscape is shifting — and fast. Traditional intranet-style platforms like Staffbase, while once a step forward, are struggling to meet the needs of today’s increasingly mobile, distributed, and deskless workforces. If your platform only reaches office-based employees or requires complex setup to stay relevant, it may be time to move on.
The best Staffbase alternatives go beyond publishing news and announcements. They connect your people to what matters — whether that’s critical updates, shift schedules, HR tools, or each other. They simplify access, streamline workflows, and actually get used every day.
Blink leads the way as the all-in-one employee experience platform built for real-world teams — from the breakroom to the boardroom. It delivers unmatched adoption, mobile-first utility, and a unified experience your entire workforce can rely on.
If you’re ready to:
Replace your intranet with something employees actually use
Reach 100% of your workforce — not just the ones with email
Bring communication, tasks, schedules, and engagement into one platform
…then Blink is the best place to start.
Why teams choose Blink over Staffbase
Staffbase is a capable intranet platform, but it comes at a high price point, with added costs once you need the full module set. Blink is mobile-first, requires no corporate email, and is used daily by teams at McDonald's, Domino's, and Chick-fil-A — without the same layered pricing. See our full head-to-head comparison.
Frontline employee engagement is no easy task. Your frontline employees work varying shift patterns and spend limited time at head office. They don’t tend to get much downtime during their working hours. And they aren’t always kept in the loop when it comes to company comms.
These obstacles get in the way when you’re trying to connect frontline workers to company culture — and each other. And it’s why standard team-building activities usually fall short.
To make a success of your employee engagement strategy, you have to tailor activities to your deskless workforce. Otherwise, you risk disengagement, plus the productivity and retention issues that go with it.
That’s why we’ve created this list of 18 employee engagement activities. These ideas are suited to busy frontline workers and their schedules. They’re designed to boost engagement and offer meaningful benefits to your employees.
This can lead to lower levels of productivity. It can also cause increased staff turnover rates, which already tend to be pretty high in frontline organizations.
Employee engagement activities, like the ones we’ve included below, help frontline employees feel more connected to their company, role, and co-workers.
And, according to Gallup, improving your employee engagement rates can lead to a range of business benefits. Besides increased productivity and employee retention, these benefits include:
A reduction in safety incidents
A decrease in absenteeism
An increase in customer loyalty
An increase in profitability
Employee engagement is good for employees — and it’s good for business. So let’s take a look at the activities that will help make it happen.
18 employee engagement activities (that work for a frontline workforce)
To engage your frontline workforce, you can incorporate any of the following employee engagement activities into your work days:
1. Engage with employees from day one
2. Celebrate employee milestones and contributions
3. Incentivize goals
4. Create a mentorship program
5. Offer perks that boost employee wellbeing
6. Give regular feedback
7. Encourage group chat
8. Provide shift swap tools
9. Plan a money management month
10. Launch a poll
11. Create online communities
12. Offer professional development opportunities
13. Launch a competition
14. Use video tools
15. Organize a volunteering day
16. Hand the mic to your leaders
17. Run Lunch and Learn sessions
18. Measure employee engagement
Team engagement ideas for frontline workers are different than for other workers. With their variable schedules, you can’t arrange lunch dates or after-work get-togethers.
Here are a few employee engagement initiatives your frontline workers can benefit from.
You can start with employee engagement activities like:
Introducing new co-workers (digitally if it’s not possible to introduce everyone in person)
Supporting new hires to login and familiarize themselves with your engagement tech tools
Sharing a library of online resources that explain the company, their role, and company culture
Assigning them a buddy or mentor
New hires need regular guidance, especially from managers. So don’t assume your workers are done onboarding after a few days or weeks. Instead, design a process that lasts for at least 90 days.
2. Celebrate employee milestones and contributions
Employee recognition improves engagement. Everyone likes to feel appreciated and valued by their employer.
So make recognition a regular feature on your company intranet or newsletter. Celebrate birthdays, volunteer work, and project milestones. Recognize the hard work and successes of employees.
You can also encourage peer-to-peer recognition. 75% of employees say that giving recognition makes them want to stay at their current organization longer.
Get co-workers to nominate each other for awards, then hold an award ceremony. Or simply get them to appreciate each other by sending a message on the company news feed.
3. Incentivize goals
Gamify the work environment by offering rewards in return for meeting goals. When employees perform well and meet targets, give them a gift you know they’ll like. Company rewards can include gift cards, discounts, cash prizes, an extra day of paid vacation, or the option to give a charitable donation.
But don’t dive right in. Before you announce your reward program, it’s a good idea to survey employees. Ask them which rewards they’d prefer so you can be sure that workers will be motivated by the prizes on offer.
4. Create a mentorship program
Do you want your employees to engage with each other, learn valuable skills, and help each other at the same time? Try rolling out a mentorship program.
Assign frontline workers a mentor within your organization. You can pair people from different departments and different levels of the company.
Then, set a regular schedule of mentor meet-ups. Mentors and mentees might like to conduct meetings online to better suit their work schedules.
Also, offer guidance on how constructive meetings should be run. The aim is for mentees to set workplace goals and come up with a plan for achieving them.
5. Offer perks that boost employee wellbeing
A healthy worker is a productive worker. So encourage fun runs, offer free healthy snacks, and provide discount gym memberships.
Also, try to provide flexible scheduling when possible to give employees a better work-life balance. You’ll reduce employee stress and their risk of burnout.
To ensure frontline employees can access wellbeing activities, you can use a wellbeing app. Via this type of tool, you can provide employee engagement activities. Things like mindfulness and meditation sessions, nutrition planning, and health tracking, all via an employee’s mobile device.
6. Give regular feedback
Gallup research shows that 80% of employees who say they’ve received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged in their work.
So schedule activities where employees receive regular feedback from managers. Make it constructive and useful for employees, so it’s not an appointment they dread.
Also, take a few hours each week to run an online open-door session. This is a time when employees can meet with managers digitally to ask questions and express any concerns.
7. Use the company news feed
A user-friendly employee app with a company news feed acts as a virtual water cooler. It’s a place where frontline workers, who may spend little time with co-workers, get to build stronger workplace relationships.
The comms team can support engagement by using the news feed to share a mix of essential and informal posts. They can announce news, celebrate birthdays, and share tips — encouraging workers to comment, like, and post.
Also, consider these engagement-boosting ideas:
A weekly challenge — a photo contest, a trivia quiz, or a step-count competition
Employee spotlight — highlight a different employee each week, describing their achievements, personal stories, and contributions
A survey — whether the topic is something fun or something more serious, surveys are a great way to engage your workforce
Health and wellness tips — share tips and articles related to physical and mental health, all suited to the demands of frontline roles
8. Provide shift swap tools
Frontline employees want greater levels of flexibility. It’s not always easy for frontline organizations to provide this when there are fixed shifts to fill.
But with shift swap tools, you make it easy for workers to achieve a little more work-life balance. They can swap shifts with co-workers without HR or managers having to get involved.
You can provide other self-serve tools, too. For example, via the Blink interface, employees can access their pay stubs, request time off, and view their shift schedules.
Automating HR tasks like this gives more control to your frontline workers and lightens the load for your HR team.
9. Plan a money management month
Money worries can affect an employee’s wellbeing and their engagement with work. And employee engagement activities are most effective when they provide real value for your workers.
So plan a money management month to help employees make informed financial decisions. Use quizzes and polls to engage employees in the conversation. Challenge employees to a low or no spend day. Provide money advice over 1:1 chats or via your company resource center.
This is exactly what they’ve done at supermarket chain, Tesco, where they recognized the strain that the cost of living crisis has put on employees. In response, they introduced a range of new initiatives:
Skills training activities so employees develop store-wide skills and can pick up extra shifts
A Pay Advance scheme that allows workers to access earned pay ahead of payday
Personalized videos explaining to every worker how much their pension will be worth
10. Launch a poll
Polls give employees a chance to share their ideas and opinions. It’s a way to make their voices heard.
You can launch polls online, with the help of a tool like Blink Surveys. This allows you to quickly and easily find out what frontline employees are thinking about your chosen topic.
You might like to ask questions related to internal communications, company change, employee engagement, or simply the layout of the break room. Using this insight, you can make changes that make a real difference to your employees.
Just be sure to keep them updated with poll findings and your plan of action so they know that you’re really listening to what they have to say.
11. Create online communities
It’s easier to build connections with co-workers when you have something in common with one another. Online communities — based around shared interests — make it easy for frontline workers to find like-minded work friends.
So create space on your intranet for these types of communities. Perhaps you have a group that loves to run in their spare time. A gaggle of gamers. Or a bunch of bookworms. An online community helps bring these co-workers together.
12. Offer professional development opportunities
Training is a great way to improve workplace engagement. 71% of frontline workers have a strong desire for more learning opportunities at work. But a third of workers say that employers don’t invest enough in their growth.
Try to make training more accessible to your frontline workforce. Remember that it doesn’t have to take place in a classroom. You can put training resources into the palm of frontline workers’ hands with the help of the right technology.
You can offer micro-learning modules that workers can complete on mobile devices during a break. And provide fun online courses, with competitive and gamified features.
Also, remember that a lot of worker engagement can be tracked back to your managers. So ensure that managers get the employee engagement training they need, too.
13. Launch a competition
Pit teams of employees against each other with a fun company-wide competition. For an engagement boost, link your competition to company goals and values.
For example, if you’re championing employee wellbeing, set workers a steps or fitness challenge.
If you’re focused on employee development, encourage workers to complete training modules by setting them a training challenge.
To highlight your commitment to a chosen charity, set a fundraising contest.
Alternatively, improve engagement on the company app with a quick photo caption competition.
Pick challenges that can be completed remotely, without teams having to meet up in person. Also, plan rewards for the winners and give regular updates via your comms channels to keep competitors engaged.
14. Use video tools
When you can’t meet face to face, video is the next best thing. You can film leadership updates, company events, and new product demos to give employees more insight into the organization and their roles.
Videos are a great option for town hall meetings. Post the video on your employee news feed and employees who can’t attend in person can watch the video back later.
Similarly, get new hires to film a video to introduce themselves and post it to the news feed. Their co-workers can comment on the post to say hello and help their new co-worker feel more at home.
15. Organize a volunteering day
Offering employees opportunities to volunteer is good for their wellbeing and engagement levels. You can make this activity more appealing to frontline workers by giving them paid time off to volunteer and by giving them flexibility over the days they choose.
Salesforce leads the way on this. They give employees seven business days every year to volunteer for one of the non-profit organizations that Salesforce formally supports — or one of their own choosing.
Jamie Olsen, senior director of Citizen Philanthropy at Salesforce says:
“These are the types of programs that people want and that are attracting them to companies right now. They better the community. They improve people’s happiness.”
You can ensure everyone is on the same page by conducting a virtual Q&A session with one of your leadership team.
This type of event gives employees direct access to leadership. It bridges the gap between the frontline and head office. It also helps employees make their voices heard, which makes them feel valued and motivated.
The prospect of a Q&A can be a little daunting for leaders. But remember, a moderator can facilitate the session, reading out pre-submitted questions and managing live questions.
Also bear in mind that there are huge benefits to be gained. These include frontline insights, improved communication, and a stronger workplace culture.
17. Run lunch and learn sessions
When employees have all the information they need to do their jobs well, they feel more engaged. So give employees access to an online library of resources, transferring any old paper documents to a digital format.
With this library, you can then run virtual Lunch and Learn sessions. This is where a group of employees watches or reads a selected resource. Afterwards, they discuss their reflections either over video call or via group messaging.
18. Measure employee engagement
The last on our list of employee engagement activities is one for your people team, not your frontline employees. And it’s a really important part of any employee engagement strategy.
Find out how you’re doing by tracking employee engagement KPIs. Track your employee net promoter score (eNPS), engagement with your intranet platform, or employee survey results.
You can then set goals and — by drilling down into the data provided by your platform analytics — find actionable areas for improvement.
Final thoughts: employee engagement activities and ideas
To make a success of frontline employee engagement, you need to:
Provide employee engagement activities that offer real benefits for frontline employees
Make these activities accessible to the frontline with the help of flexible, digital solutions
You then create a culture that employees can play an active part in, no matter their schedule or location. You also motivate frontline workers to engage with company culture out of choice, making time for it in their busy days.
Incorporating the activities above into your frontline workplace is much easier when you have the right technology. And an employee engagement app comes in very useful. It’s a way to put all content and communication into the palm of every employee.
By creating online spaces where employees can gather, chat, share knowledge, and connect with company culture, you extend employee engagement to your hardest-to-reach employees — those on the frontline.
2025 will be a transformative year for internal comms
As we look to 2025, internal communications is no longer just about keeping employees in the loop. Today’s workplace demands thoughtful, empathetic, and tech-savvy approaches to connect and engage a diverse, often dispersed workforce.
While this coming year will bring a host of unknown changes and unexpected challenges, it will also underscore universal principles — like empathy, community, and respect — that help create workplaces people genuinely want to be part of.
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For internal comms leaders, staying on top of these trends is about more than checking the latest buzzwords off your comms resolution list. It’s about creating a work culture that feels meaningful, supportive, and inclusive.
Let’s dive into the top internal comms trends shaping the future of work in 2025.
With worldwide conflicts and societal strife stirring up strong opinions, internal communication can’t afford to be tone-deaf or dismissive. People want a workplace that doesn’t just pay lip service to empathy and respect — they want to feel it.
86% of employees say workplace empathy is crucial, yet only 50% believe their organizations deliver on it — underscoring a gap that leaders are aiming to bridge in 2025
Employees bring their whole selves to work, especially during tense times. Internal comms should acknowledge that people may feel vulnerable or uncertain. This doesn’t mean comms teams need to — or even should! — take a stance on every issue, but it does mean that they should prioritize creating a culture where all voices feel respected and valued.
Help your executive leaders create communication guidelines that promote respect and open dialogue without crossing into sensitive or divisive territories. And consider how your content can be more inclusive not only with what it says, but how it says it: Informal videos from leaders, for example, can be more impactful and human than a lengthy written email.
#2. Hyper-personalization will redefine comms
The right balance of communications can be hard to find. Too much, and you risk overwhelming employees; too little, and employees may not feel as informed.
A key way to hit the right stride is by creating a more personalized approach to comms — something that 55% of communication professionals believe will be the most impactful trend in the next 5 years. Real-time data and AI can help internal comms teams segment communications to targeted groups:
By role: If you’re a manufacturer, the messages your boots-on-the-ground plant workers care about will likely differ from your employees at headquarters. Be sure to take your core employee groups into consideration as you develop your content.
By location: Similarly to role-based content, consider personalizing comms by location — from corporate updates (such as new benefits in the US vs. Europe) to proximate situations (like a nearby flood warning or power outage).
By channel: Use back-end analytics to identify the channels where employees receive their information — as well as those that, for whatever reason, tend to fall flat — so you can ensure optimal engagement.
Taking a hyper-personalized approach creates a more relevant experience that cuts through the noise and resonates with employees on an individual level.
3. Mobile-first strategies will take center stage
For frontline and mobile workers, desktop-first communication doesn’t cut it anymore. Only 23% of frontline employees feel they have access to adequate technology; this lack of access can be detrimental to the employee experience.
Streamlining workplace tech isn’t just better for the frontline — it’s better for everyone: The average desk worker juggles 11 applications to complete their tasks, leaving a lot of room for digital burnout, irrelevant content, and missed messages. Plus, mobile phones are the primary way people interact with their favorite apps and services outside of work — so mobile-friendly employee technology feels naturally intuitive and familiar.
Internal comms teams need to see mobile as the primary channel for reaching all employees. By using mobile-first employee platforms to share urgent updates and in-the-moment communication, internal comms teams can better reach people where they are.
Bonus: Create concise and visual content that’s easy to see on a smartphone — think short videos, bite-sized news updates, and mobile-friendly graphics — to make important information instantly accessible and boost engagement.
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#4. Asynchronous tools will bring harmony to hybrid teams
As hybrid and dispersed workforces become more the norm, it’s on internal comms teams to cater to employees scattered across time zones, locations, and schedules.
With asynchronous (async) communication, people don’t have to be online at the same time to receive and respond to updates — making it easier for everyone to stay informed and connected. Plus, many employees feel that async communication is beneficial because it increases productivity (42%) and fosters a sense of inclusion (34%).
Rather than sharing important information only via live town halls or in-person meetings, consider creating digital assets — like recorded video updates, in-depth FAQs, or detailed content hubs — that employees can access on their own time. This approach ensures everyone can stay on the same page without endless meetings or overlapping schedules.
Make sure your content is accessible to everyone, from employees with disabilities to those working odd hours. Use clear language, avoid jargon, and leverage diverse formats to accommodate different preferences and needs.
#5. Digital tools will look more and more like Instagram and TikTok
Social media influences everything we do, and the workplace is no exception. More internal comms platforms are adding social media-style features to make work communication more engaging.
Employees enjoy posting, sharing, and reacting outside of work — the new year is a perfect moment in time to start bringing that energy into the workplace. Now more than ever, your employee experience tech should offer a user experience as good as, or better than, everyday consumer apps like Instagram and TikTok.
Here are some ways organizations are encouraging user-generated content that creates a sense of community and makes people feel seen:
Stories for the workplace: Enable employees to share daily updates, work wins, and personal highlights from their workday.
Communities that connect: Create digital spaces where employees can connect and chat about shared interests, hobbies, and personal passions.
News Feed for everyone: Curate your comms homepage as an internal news feed, showcasing an employee’s unique view of relevant content
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Social-style features can be a great way to inspire interactivity, but it’s crucial to maintain professional boundaries. Use moderation tools, set clear guidelines, and ensure all content aligns with company values and respects the workplace environment.
#6. AI will become your content sidekick
From writing support to content recommendations, AI is becoming a game-changer to help internal comms teams boost efficiency and personalize content. And they’re already excited about the innovation: 75% of users are looking to automate tasks at work and use generative AI for work communications.
Generative AI has emerged as a powerful co-creator for internal comms, allowing teams to craft messages from scratch, refine drafts, or adjust tones with ease. Need to send a CEO message with a warm, motivational tone or an urgent update that’s clear and concise? Either way, generative AI’s got your back.
AI tools can also analyze how employees engage with content, helping internal comms teams understand what resonates and adjust messaging accordingly. For instance, if engagement spikes with video updates, teams can double down on that format.
As AI continues to evolve, comms teams will gain a deeper understanding of tone, timing, and content effectiveness, ultimately leading to internal messages that feel both high quality and highly personalized.
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#7. Employee influencers will shape internal culture
We know firsthand from social media that people connect with people more than they do with brands or businesses. After all, 7 in 10 people are more likely to trust an influencer recommendation over information straight from a brand.
By tapping internal influencers, internal comms teams can champion messages and initiatives authentically, much like influencers do externally.
Start by identifying well-regarded and highly engaged employees across departments who can act as ambassadors for key company initiatives. These ambassadors can create and share their own updates, tips, or personal stories — like on social media — giving an authentic perspective that feels relatable and trustworthy.
Whether it’s a behind-the-scenes look at a big project, a day in their work life, or a personal win, internal influencers help humanize communication and give employees a sense of ownership over company culture.
#8. Gamification will transform engagement
Gamification is huge in consumer apps, and it’s making its way into internal comms to make engagement fun and rewarding. This trend goes beyond simple points or badges — it’s about fostering healthy competition and building team spirit. In fact, 9 in 10 employees say gamification makes them feel more productive and happier at work.
Create leaderboards around metrics like onboarding activities participated in, peer recognition received, or training modules completed. This can spark a friendly sense of competition, especially when teams work toward a collective goal.
Employees can unlock digital achievements for reaching milestones like work anniversaries, completing major projects, or receiving continuous positive feedback. These achievements can be showcased in their profiles or even appear as badges in chat interfaces.
Stay ahead of the comms curve in the new year and beyond
As 2025 unfolds, internal comms teams have an exciting opportunity to lead the charge in creating thoughtful, human-centered communication.
From AI personalization to empathetic messaging, these trends can help build stronger, more connected workplaces that employees feel proud to belong to.
By incorporating these trends into your 2025 plan, internal comms leaders can set up their team for success with a strategy that hears every voice, embraces every employee, and unites teams across their organization.
Managing frontline employees is an altogether different task than leading a desk-based team.
For one, you’re usually working in shift patterns and you might have insufficient tooling to keep you all connected. This connection gap makes it all the harder to navigate the “Great attrition” risks and widespread disengagement that most first-line/frontline managers are faced with.
But we don’t need to linger on the reasons why managing the frontline can be hard. Let’s focus instead on how to do it more effectively.
Because if we can empower first-line managers to better manage their teams, we can help reduce attrition, increase engagement, and improve the employee experience for everyone.
In this guide, we'll discussyour role as a frontline manager, the challenges faced by frontline teams and their managers, and the best practice approaches you can adopt when managing frontline employees.
Understanding the first-line manager role
Frontline managers play a pivotal role in any deskless organization and account for roughly 60% of a company’s management ranks. They are responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of their teams and ensuring that their organization's frontline remains strong and efficient.
Ultimately, the role of a first-line leader is to enable frontline workers to do their jobs effectively. This might include setting objectives, delegating tasks, providing feedback on frontline employee performance, and ultimately driving organizational success. But it also means giving positive and constructive feedback: celebrating a job well done and stepping in to rectify when things aren’t going right.
And yet, first-line managers are often “accidental managers”, too. They might have been promoted to a managerial role because of their subject matter expertise and hands-on experience in the business — but they’ve yet to receive any dedicated management or employee engagement training to prepare them for the job. A large proportion (around 40% based on recent Harvard Business Review research) are first-time managers as well, in the very first year of their leadership journey.
Maybe that’s a description that resonates? And if it is, you’ll also be able to appreciate how that makes the role more difficult.
First-line managers: overworked and under-invested in?
First-line managers can be the hardest working and most undervalued level of management — under pressure from all angles and expected to pick up the slack caused by frontline labor shortages.
When an organization propels someone into a leadership role with insufficient training and insufficient support, we can hardly be surprised if they struggle to perform. And many first-line managers do: 60% in fact, over their first two years.
Flipping that figure around and helping first-line managers to perform is relatively easy to achieve.
A frontline manager’s potential can be unlocked by:
Providing them with tools for proper team-wide communication and workforce management
Investing in employee engagement training to help manage and improve team morale
Alleviating the strain of manual, repetitive tasks to free up their time to better manage their teams
Doing so is in everyone’s best interests. Frontline employees will receive a better and more fulfilling workplace experience which helps them deliver a better quality of service to customers. The impact of this will be felt on the organization’s bottom line, making frontline manager empowerment a business-critical mission for the C-Suite and other leaders.
If you’re a first-line manager, it’s good to know your worth.
You are in a unique position within the organization — you’re frontline-facing and can act as a touchpoint between frontline workers and your desk-based peers. You can also be the catalyst for better frontline employee engagement and motivation.
Common challenges when managing frontline employees
If you’re facing challenges as a first-line manager, know that you’re not alone.
There are a number of common issues impacting frontline teams, including:
Poor communication and engagement
Attrition and turnover
Labor shortages
Unstable service levels and disappointed customers
Lack of useful tooling
Lack of training for frontline teams
Lack of training for first-line managers themselves
Attrition, turnover, and the unavoidable staff shortages that follow can seriously impact the quality of service provided by the frontline workforce. Frontline teams increasingly struggle to cover more tasks with fewer resources — and it’s often the first-line manager who is left racing to fill empty shifts, deliver on tasks, or explain the drop in productivity to other senior management.
High turnover rates can also have a detrimental effect on frontline team morale, as new employees come in and existing ones leave at a rapid rate. Open communication between you and your team — which also means providing fit-for-purpose employee engagement tools and solutions, and employee engagement activities — will be key in helping to build trust and loyalty within the organization.
Finally, frontline managers must effectively advocate for their teams when they are not getting adequate support from executives and training from the business. This may involve having difficult conversations with the C-Suite or presenting frontline engagement data that shows the value of investing in frontline teams.
7 best practices when managing frontline employees
1. Thorough onboarding
It’s important to provide all new team members with a detailed onboarding program. You want to create a sense of community for them and ensure that they know any responsibilities and KPI expectations for the role from the get-go.
All frontline employees should receive adequate training for their specific roles and ensure they understand the requirements of their job. This will be a compliance must-do in many frontline organizations, of course, but even if the role is light on health and safety or legal regulations, you’ll want to take the time to outline the responsibilities clearly.
Onboarding can be a time-consuming process but it's an early driver of employee engagement, so explore the tools you have available to help lighten the load.
Again, the business case for doing so is easy to sell to decision-makers: the faster you can onboard new joiners, the sooner they can help move the business forward (and the less time and focus you’ll lose on your other essential tasks).
2. Active listening
Listening — and we mean really listening — to your frontline teams is essential for successful frontline management.
It can be difficult for frontline employees to feel heard, as they are often more spread out than desk-based colleagues and have less access to resources and support. As a frontline manager, it is important to ask for, actively listen to, and then share the concerns of your team.
3. Communicate across the board
Frontline teams have a unique brief when it comes to internal communications, and there aren’t too many tools that are really fit for purpose.
Having access to a mobile-first frontline employee appcan help keep everyone in the organization connected. As a first-line manager, you can lead by example — posting and commenting on company updates, messaging frontline employees directly and within groups, as well as making sure that senior leaders are seeing what’s being shared.
By prioritizing communication with your frontline employees, you can ensure they always feel informed, appreciated, and engaged — no matter how infrequently you see them face to face.
4. Support and pastoral care
Management support is key for each team member to feel valued and to keep morale high knowing that their supervisor has their back. This can be done through regular check-ins, providing tailored resources for their development, and actively listening to — and actioning — their feedback for the business.
Empowering your frontline workforce with the support of intuitive scheduling solutions and the autonomy to manage their own workloads can also help them feel valued and give them a sense of responsibility.
Finally, providing instant access to mental health resources will enable employees to feel safer in the work environment, and more comfortable in approaching their manager with any issues they may have.
A TikTok video showing a restaurant manager comforting a tearful employee sparked a big conversation about pastoral care for frontline teams. You will find an approach that feels comfortable and beneficial for you and the people you work with every day.
5. Professional development
Many frontline workers feel that they do not receive the same access to career advancement opportunities as their desk-based colleagues. This can leave frontline staff feeling undervalued and, unsurprisingly, employee motivation starts to dwindle.
Professional development is key for frontline employees. Frontline managers know what is expected of them, and what it takes to be successful in the role. If you see those characteristics in someone else, develop them. This might mean connecting them with development opportunities, recommending them for promotion or training, as well as checking that your frontline staff are happy with their career development via ongoing employee surveys.
By investing in your frontline team’s growth, you can ensure that their skills are kept up to date, increasing their confidence and improving their job satisfaction.
6. Reward hard work and commitment
It’s essential to provide frontline employees with tangible rewards for their hard work and dedication, just as you would your desk-based staff. Not seeing your deskless employees every day doesn’t equal forgetting about their contributions to your company — that’s something you may need to remind desk-based senior leaders.
Rewarding your frontline can be done in a variety of ways: bonus pay, gift cards, lunch vouchers, or even just a public shoutout across the company. This helps to show appreciation for their efforts and encourages them to continue striving for excellence. It also allows you to boost employee morale and create a positive working environment.
While rewarding great work is important, in the current economic climate, businesses don't always have the funds to pay frontline workers more. That's why reward and recognition should always go hand-in-hand.
7. Recognize team and individual achievements
Employee recognition, small or large, is crucial for motivating and inspiring team members.
Showing appreciation is a great way to boost morale and create a positive working environment. Recognizing employees can come in various forms such as verbal praise, recognition in meetings, and virtual employee recognition or Kudos.
If someone has dealt with a difficult customer or situation well, recognize this. If someone has worked extra hard to ensure quality of service, recognize this. Acknowledging great work can help empower employees and make them feel appreciated for their efforts. It’ll also make them more likely to perform that way again.
To retain a frontline worker and enable them to become a valuable asset to your organization, you need to ensure their efforts are recognized. By following this advice, you can show them that their hard work is appreciated and foster an environment of engagement and success.
Expert tips from frontline managers
Healthcare ops expert and former President of Administrative Operations at Elara Caring, Ian Gordon, has some key insights for us on the topic of engaging with frontline employees.
Here are just a few of his expert tips for navigating frontline management and engaging your deskless workforce:
Create bi-directional communication: Communicating issues is a team effort. It starts with the CEO and runs the full way through to the frontline. Everybody has to own it
Redeploy resources to the frontline: Increasing investments into the skills and capabilities of your frontline can be a true differentiator in the marketplace. It is also a good reason for your frontline to feel appreciated and invested in. Wondering where this extra budget will come from? If you can help retain employees with training and development, then you won’t need to spend so much on continuous recruitment
The right tech: Being a frontline worker, you can’t spend a lot of time signing in and navigating complex tech. Having hub-based access to all-inclusive and easy-to-navigate information can really be a benefit to employees
Keeping frontline employees engaged is a key part of running a successful business.
Strategies for employee engagement and retention should cover the seven tips mentioned above. As well as providing accessible resources, frequent rewards and recognition, and implementing tailored technology solutions, you can foster an environment of engagement that will help to retain your frontline workers and enable them to become valuable assets for the organization.
Remember: investing in the growth of your frontline team is essential for success. With the right tools and support in place, you can create an environment of engagement in which everyone feels able to thrive.
Enable: Give your frontline the tools, information, and inspiration they need to go above and beyond.
Engage: Give your frontline instant access to the news, people, and information they need to feel part of the team.
Understand: Use data and insights you need to make the best decisions for your frontline team.
With our one-stop solution, you can get rid of complex and outdated processes that are blocking your frontline's satisfaction — and their success. With Blink, you can finally empower your frontline with the tools they need to succeed.
Optimizing an intranet for marketing departments might not be on your mind, but your marketers can benefit from stronger connections with the rest of your corporation.
“Until recently, we communicated through email. This was to share patient information and… not much else. There was little in the way of engaging employees, celebrating achievements, or keeping in touch,”
The health organization shares personal anecdotes and success stories and communicates with different branches and departments easily.
Best of all, with a smart intranet, your marketing team members can use these interactions and stories as marketing collateral.
The intranet for marketing means taking advantage of features other departments will be excited about — like your company social networking feed — and using them to ease your marketers’ workload.
Must-have features for your marketing intranet
Intranets have been associated with HR or IT for a long time. But these departments aren’t the only ones who benefit from a way to connect to the rest of your organization.
With the right features, your marketing department can both source materials and share upcoming campaigns with ease.
You need to be able to share different media content on your intranet. And you want to be able to share the latest marketing strategies with frontline staff and receive pictures, videos, and feedback from them. It should be simple for everyone to publish their own content too.
An intranet with different permission settings will help make sure only certain teams or people have approval to see specific documents or market research. That makes it easier to share information confidently in the digital workplace.
The best intranet platforms for marketers should integrate with other apps like Slack or Microsoft 365, so your team can continue to use the tools they feel comfortable with.
Surveys will help marketing gain feedback from different departments without hassle. They can then check the built-in analytics to see how engaged employees are with the content they’re posting.
5 ways to use your intranet for marketing
Now you know what features to look for in a marketing intranet, it’s time to go over how you can use those tools productively.
1. Share marketing initiatives
Sometimes employees don’t know about new deals or offers unless they get notifications from management. An intranet keeps everyone on the same page.
2. Create a sharable photo album
Make an album where staff can upload pictures or video clips that marketing can use. Having one place where a photo of a staff celebration can be quickly uploaded to the company intranet reduces the strain on all of your workers.
When it’s easier for people to share their content, they’re more likely to.
3. Collect social media content
Not only pictures but quotes, examples of good work by frontline workers, and even share job vacancies at specific locations. Social media is becoming less curated, and more authentic content is resonating with users.
Sharing digital marketing materials with actual workers instead of models can help you achieve that genuine feel.
4. Promote your company blog
Share posts that staff are likely to be interested in and learn from. 89% of marketers use blogs in their content strategies, but do your workers know about it? Don't just send them to your homepage — share case studies, white papers, and press releases they might care about.
5. Share marketing materials that others need
Have a folder or feed for current sales strategy and brand assets, so if an employee needs to reference them, they’ll always have easy access to the promotions.
Get your marketing team on board
A social intranet is only as good as the contributions from its users.
You need to get your marketing department engaged with a new platform, or they won’t see the benefits from the workspace.
Multiple experts at the Content Marketing Institute expect video content to grow in 2022, but your department might not have the resources to create all of this content themselves.
By leaning into your company’s intranet software, your team can source photos, videos, success stories, milestones, and other materials from frontline workers and other departments as they create them.
Marketing will be able to access this information quickly — and in most cases, directly. 23% of marketers surveyed by HubSpot said just finding the ideas for new content was their biggest challenge for 2022.
If your marketing team is able to improve internal communications with other branches, they can access new information and learn what’s trending in stores now.
They can also use employee-generated content as a springboard or incorporate it directly into new marketing efforts.
The best way to have marketing get on board with an intranet is to have them try it out for free and see how they like it.
Final thoughts: marketing intranet — using an intranet to transform marketing
An intranet for marketing can streamline the entire department and lessen their workload.
Having your entire company help generate content yields a more authentic message that improves employee engagement and means less time spent hunting for a good photo or story.
Communicating and defining the roles helps keep everyone on the same page.
But make sure the intranet solution you choose has the features your organization needs for each department.
Your employees need to be able to access the intranet easily, and a mobile solution will help more workers connect and engage.
Help cut down on the work your marketing department is facing with a fast, company-wide intranet like Blink today.
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